Including special needs kids; Tea Party meeting; Transforming Detroit

AUBURN HILLS — The Student LIFE office at Oakland Community College’s Auburn Hills Campus is presenting “Opening Doors, Opening Lives,” a talk from a personal and professional perspective about the process of including special needs children in their neighborhoods, from 6-7:30 p.m. Monday in Room G240 of the campus’ Student Center, 2900 Featherstone Road.

The speaker will be Jennifer Greeling, author of “Opening Doors, Opening Lives: Creating Awareness of Advocacy Inclusion and Education for Our Children with Special Needs.” She will share her unique perspective as a teacher and as a parent of a child with special needs. She will give educational tips, advice and personal stories that help parents support children with disabilities.

Admission is free and the public is invited, but space is limited. For more information, call 248-232-4290 or send an email to studentlife@oaklandcc.edu.

Tea Party meeting planned

TROY — The Troy Area Tea Party will meet at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at the American-Polish Cultural Center, 2975 E. Maple Road. A short film will be shown for those who arrive before 7 p.m. Speakers will be a host of candidates, including Mike Bishop, candidate for Oakland County prosecutor; Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard; Deb Carley, candidate for 6th Circuit Court judge; Dan Christ, candidate for 6th Circuit Court judge; Troy Mayor Janice Daniels; William Rollstin, candidate for 6th Circuit Court judge; Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner John P. McCulloch; 6th Circuit Court Judge Michael Warren; and Don Volaric, candidate for 9th Congressional District representative. There will also be a discussion of the ballot proposals.

SOUTHFIELD — Wayne State University Associate Professor Michael Belzer will speak on “Transforming the Detroit Region into a Transportation Hub” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Mary E. Marburger Science and Engineering Auditorium in the Science Building at Lawrence Technological University, 21000 W. 10 Mile Road. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Belzer’s solution to transportation is to take advantage of the proximity to Canada and access to North America’s only two transcontinental railroads to create an inland port similar to Chicago.

This “Great Lakes Global Freight Gateway” would concentrate intermodal freight transport assets and transform the area into one of America’s pre-eminent transport centers, providing regional business with low-cost and quick access to global markets. Belzer estimates this inland port would generate $11 billion annually in new economic activity, 150,000 new jobs, and more than $1.3 billion in taxes to re-energize state and municipal governments in the region.

Smashing pumpkins at the Zoo

ROYAL OAK — Detroit Zoo animals will have a smashing good time on Oct. 24, when they receive pumpkins filled with tasty treats to eat, play with, roll around in, tear apart and smash. Each year around Halloween, the zoo’s animal welfare staff provides environmental enrichment in the form of pumpkin, gourds and cornstalks as special holiday treats for the animals.

The enrichment items are hidden throughout the animals’ habitats or prepared and placed in a unique manner to stimulate natural behaviors.

DETROIT — Comerica Bank and the Detroit Red Wings are teaming up to collect new smoke detectors for low-income families and disabled and elderly citizens across southeast Michigan.

The collection runs through Nov. 16.

Comerica customers can drop smoke detectors into specially marked boxes at more than 140 Comerica banking centers and office buildings in southeast Michigan. All donated smoke detectors will be distributed through fire departments in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties.